Scandal and Secrets

by Miranda Lee

  Celeste slowly nodded her head up and down. 'Yes, you're absolutely right. I shouldn't make harsh judgement of other people and their relationships. We're about to make history, I would say, when we announce our intention to marry. I'm sure a few people are going to faint dead away, my own mother included. I'm just thankful she's overseas at the moment. My God, the things I said to her about you. Still, it was my love turned to hate that kept me going when things were so tough. If I hadn't had my vows of vengeance I think I might have killed myself.'

  'Oh, no, Celeste. You would never have killed yourself. You're a fighter, and fighters don't know any other way than to come out of their corners with all guns blazing. You sure blazed a path through my life over the years, madam. Whitmore's almost went to the wall because of you.'

  Celeste had the grace to color guiltily. 'I might have overstepped the mark occasionally.'

  'That's putting it midly. But I forgive you,' he grinned, 'provided you agree to some treaty terms.'

  'Treaty terms? What do you think this is, Little Big Horn? And which side are you on? Colonel Custer's or the Indians'?'

  'Whatever side won. Now on to the rules of truce.' He slanted her a quick glance. 'I suppose it would be too much to hope that you would hand over control of Campbell's to an impartial manager and retire to graceful living as my wife and social hostess.'

  'You wish!' she laughed.

  'Just as I thought. In that case I have to insist you stop using unfair and illegal business practices. If I find that Damian has - '

  'Damian has been sacked from his position as sales and marketing manager,' she interrupted firmly. 'There will be no more shady goings-on at that level, I can assure you.'

  'That's all I wanted to hear. Right! Now on to problem number two. Where are we going to live?'

  'Certainly not in that imitation Southern mansion of yours!'

  'Surely you don't expect me to reside in that crumbling castle you call home!'

  They both looked at each other and laughed.

  'We'll buy a brand-new place together,' Byron suggested, smiling.

  'Only if I pay half,' Celeste argued.

  'Agreed! It'll have to have a gym.'

  'And a pool,' she put in.

  'And I'd like to be by the sea for a change.'

  'Good idea. It'll give me somewhere to put my boat.'.

  Byron scowled 'I'd forgotten about that monstrosity. I'll bet it costs a fortune to run.'

  'Mmm, it certainly does. Perhaps I should sell it. What do you think?'

  'It's up to you.'

  Celeste gave him a surprised look. 'You certainly have changed, haven't you? That a most unByron-like answer.'

  'You're going to be a most unByron-like wife,' he drawled. 'Maybe I should buy you a chastity-belt for a wedding present.'

  She laughed. 'That cuts both ways, lover. Maybe I'll get you one.'

  'After having you in my bed every night, I'll be lucky to make it to the office, let alone have the energy to consider extra-curricular activities.'

  'From memory, you can be a very bad boy in offices.' He groaned. 'Don't remind me. I still can't believe the sort of things we got up to that last week.'

  'We got up to? Everything was your idea, might I remind you. You led and I simply followed.'

  'There are followers and followers, Celeste,' he said 'Your brand of following is something else. It's one of the reasons I thought you were more experienced than you were.'

  'I loved you, Byron. I wanted to please you.'

  'Hey, why the past tense? Don't you still love me and want to please me?'

  'Silly man .. .' A lump filled her throat as their eyes locked for a moment.

  'It's been a long time, hasn't it?' he said softly, but with a catch in his voice. 'But you've been worth the wait, my love. I hope you feel the same way about me.'

  Celeste was incapable of answering. She let her blurred gaze do the talking and Byron's hand reached out for hers across the gear-stick. When she entwined her trembling fingers with his and he gave them a squeeze, her heart squeezed tight with them. It had indeed been a long hard journey, but at long last they were together. They were where they had always belonged. Her vows of vengeance would soon become a different kind of vow, one that would promise to love this man for the rest of her life.

  When his hand had to leave hers to negotiate a corner she settled back into the seat with a happy sigh. Aside from her own personal happiness, it felt great to be going to give Gemma good news. Hopefully, their daughter would be pleased that her parents were going to be married. Maybe it would make up a little for her distress over the break-up of her own marriage. Celeste certainly hoped so.

  'I still can't believe it!' Ava said for the umpteenth time over dinner. 'It was enough of a shock when Gemma came home earlier and announced that you two were her parents, but now that I've heard the whole fantastic story I'm ... I'm speechless!'

  'For a person who's speechless, Ava,' Byron said drily, 'you've been saying one heck of a lot.'

  He suspected she might not be so chatty if she'd heard the whole unvarnished truth. But he and Celeste had decided that nothing would be gained by revealing the brutal treatment Celeste had suffered at the hands of that madman. It was to be thanked that he hadn't mistreated Gemma over the years. Clearly, he had loved the girl. But who wouldn't? It was impossible not to love such a loving creature. Not a word of criticism had she uttered against him and his treatment of her mother. He'd been accepted as unconditionally as Celeste had been.

  'Very funny, Byron,' Ava retorted archly. 'You know what I mean. By the way, have you told Jade?' Everyone at the table stopped eating, their mouths dropping open.

  'She has just acquired a sister, hasn't she?'

  'My God, so she has!' Byron said in a stunned voice.

  Gemma's stomach had flipped over. A sister! She'd always wanted a sister. Not only that, Jade was expecting a baby, which meant she was going to become an aunt soon as well.

  'I'll go and call her straight away,' Byron said, scraping his chair back and standing up.

  'Maybe she and Kyle would like to drive over later and we can break open a bottle of champagne or two.'

  'What a good idea,' Celeste said, then added mischievously, 'I wouldn't mind seeing that gorgeous hunk of a husband of hers at close range again.'

  Byron glared down at her. 'I can see I'll be purchasing that CB before long,' he muttered darkly.

  'CB?' Ava looked puzzled. 'What's a CB?'

  'I have no idea,' Celeste said with mock bewilderment. 'What's a CB, Byron?'

  Byron made an exasperated sound and strode from the room.

  Ava shook her head after him. 'You have my admiration, Celeste, for having anything at all to do with that man! There are times when I'd like nothing better than to give him a swift kick up the backside.'

  'I'll keep that in mind, Ava. So tell me all about that gorgeous hunk you seem to have snaffled for yourself. Have you met him, Gemma?'

  Gemma, who'd been wondering how Jade would take the news, snapped back to the present. 'What was that?'

  'Have you met Ava's fiance?'

  'No, I haven't yet. But he's dropping by later, isn't he, Ava?'

  'Yes, I see him just about every night.'

  Celeste noted the tinge of pink that immediately came to Ava's cheeks and she only just stopped her eyebrows from lifting. Apparently, therefore, it would be wise not to barge into Ava's room during any of this Vince's nightly visits.

  'And when are you getting married?' Celeste asked.

  'We've put the arrangements in Vince's mother's hands, and she's having a field-day. At the moment, we've made a tentative date for February next year. It seems it takes a while to organize an Italian wedding.'

  'I can imagine.'

  Byron strode back into the dining-room, a broad smile on his face. 'Jade's over the moon, Gemma. Frankly, I'm surprised I'm not deaf, she carried on so much. But I let her scream and cry and do all the things Jade likes doing. Anyw
ay, she said she'd be over straight away.'

  'Not alone, I hope,' Celeste quipped.

  When Byron's blue eyes narrowed, she laughed, and leant over to kiss him on the cheek.

  'You can't expect me to give up teasing you altogether, can you? You do jealousy better than any man I know.'

  'Would you believe Vince gets jealous of me?' Ava said, sounding almost surprised. 'I think jealousy must be an infallible symptom of a man's love. If he doesn't get jealous at all then he probably doesn't care.'

  'In that case, I must care for Celeste one hell of a lot,' Byron drawled. 'When another man even looks her way, I want to punch his lights out.'

  'Must be the beast in you, darling,' Celeste murmured, and looked adoringly at him.

  'Any man worth his salt has a bit of beast in him,' Byron returned. 'What woman wants a wimp, especially these days? He has to stand up and be counted, I say.'

  'Hear, hear!' Celeste clapped.

  'Vince can be a beast when necessary, can't he, Byron?' Ava said smilingly.

  He gave his sister a rueful look and rubbed his jaw. 'He's certainly not a man to be toyed with.'

  'Unless Ava's doing the toying,' Celeste murmured, bringing a startled look from Byron and a coy half smile from Ava.

  Gemma listened to this exchange, her thoughts whirling as the conversation reconfirmed what, in her heart, she already knew. Nathan did love her. Madly. Obsessively. He'd been thrown by her inexplicably leaving him, then distraught when he thought she'd run to Damian.

  Crazed by jealousy, he had done what others would decry as an unthinkable act, but she'd already accepted that the assault had been a momentary aberration, a temporary insanity which he had immediately regretted.

  But Gemma's belief that her husband really loved her did not change the fact that he did not believe she loved him. He'd said so, told her she was too young for such depth of emotion, confessing that he'd selfishly rushed her into marriage on her response to a strong sexual attraction.

  This was the reason he'd treated her as he had; buying her gifts all the time, cosseting and smothering her as an insecure older lover might do to a Lolita-style mistress, fearful all the time that she would grow bored and leave him. He'd deliberately kept the focus of the relationship on sex because that was the area he was most confident in

  It was in the father role that he made decisions for her all the time, especially the one not to tell her who her mother was, probably because he felt a mother like Celeste would be like his own mother, and consequently not worth knowing.

  Then was the role of a seducer and enslaver, taking her desire for him and exploiting it to the full, attuning her body to his needs so finely that she had seemed to lose some of her will power in that regard. He could sometimes make her respond even when she didn't feel she wanted to.

  Who knew? Maybe Nathan had thought the other day that she would even respond to his forced act of intercourse. Of course she hadn't, and when he'd finally seen that, she gained the impression that he was filled with remorse and self-disgust.

  But all this thinking left her where? Nathan insisted he didn't want her back as his wife, obviously because of her supposed adultery. How he could believe she'd go from him to Damian so soon after their very loving phone call on the previous Friday night was beyond her.

  How happy she had been after that phone call. And how optimistic for the future. She hadn't been able to wait to throwaway her pills, to come home to Nathan and to ...

  Gemma froze as the possibility struck. Dear God, she had never thought of that. The idea that she might have conceived a child that awful afternoon seemed a wicked twist of fate, but it was a distinct possibility, maybe even a probability!

  Gemma blinked as the idea took hold. Why wasn't she appalled by the thought? Or disgusted? Or revolted? Because she wasn't, that was why. Any child resulting from that unfortunate union would still be the offspring of two people who loved one another, however misguided one of them was.

  'Gemma?' Celeste asked. 'Are you all right?'

  Lord, but she was finding it hard not to actually feel excited by this, which was crazy! Looking up, she struggled for composure. 'Yes. I'm fine. Why? .

  'You ... you looked strange for a moment.'

  I not only look strange, Mother, I am strange, Gemma decided. Any other woman would be horrified. But not silly old optimistic me. Because even if I'm not pregnant, this has shown me what having a child of Nathan's means to me, what Nathan means to me.

  lt looks as if I'm going to have to win him back, came the astonishing realization. By fair means or foul, if necessary. He's not going to get away from me, she decided with a surge of steely spirit. I'm not going to do what Celeste did with Byron. Nathan is the man for me and he's the man for me here and now, not in twenty years' time.

  I have a weapon or two in my favor, Gemma planned with quite amazing calm. My body for one. Nathan does have an addiction for it. On top of that, he actually loves me. Lust plus love is a pretty powerful and potentially weakening combination. If I'm not pregnant this time, I'm certainly going to become so in the not too distant future.

  And then ... then ...

  Gemma grimaced at this point in her train of thought. She couldn't think that far ahead. She'd have to take this plan one day at a time.

  'Gemma?' Celeste asked again.

  She looked up to find everyone looking at her with concerned expressions on their faces.

  'Sorry, I was daydreaming, making plans for the future.'

  Now everyone looked even more taken aback.

  'I can keep my job at the store, can't I, Byron?' she asked.

  'Of course!'

  'And I. . .I'd like to stay living here, if I could.'

  Nathan was more likely to come to Belleview than Campbell, she reasoned. 'I hope you're not offended, Mother. I'll visit you as well.'

  'You do what you think best, Gemma, love. You're a grown woman.'

  'Then I think it best I stay here. Damian won't be annoyed, will he?'

  'Your uncle Damian will understand,' Celeste said firmly.

  'My goodness, so he is! I didn't think of that.'

  'You've also acquired a grandmother,' Celeste added, 'who's going to come home like a shot once she finds out.'

  'A grandmother too!' Gemma gasped. 'Gosh, it's hard to take it all in.'

  'It's been quite a day, I have to admit,' Byron intoned drily just as the doorbell rang. 'And it hasn't finished yet. Come on, Gemma, I need moral support to let that mad sister of yours in.'

  Gemma laughed and stood up. 'I never thought I'd see the day when you'd become a scared-cat.'

  'Well, take a good look, daughter, dear, because come tomorrow I'm going to revert to normal.'

  And come tomorrow, she promised herself as she linked arms with her father and walked from the room, I'm going to set about getting my Nathan back!